Wotif.com Holdings (WTF)

Macquarie has maintained its “outperform" rating on
Wotif.com
but lowered its 12-month target price to $5.60 from $6.50 after the hotel booking site reported a 2010 profit of $53 million, at the lower end of guidance.

Wotif’s growth slowed in the second half, and the key for brokers has been trying to figure out whether that volume slowdown was cyclical or structural. Macquarie was inclined to believe it was cyclical, because of weaker domestic leisure markets. It said further online migration and Wotif’s strong market position provided a strong medium-term growth outlook.

UBS maintained its “buy" recommendation but lowered its 12-month target price to $5 from $6.10. UBS said it expected growth to eventually resume, and agreed headwinds appeared to be cyclical rather than structural, based on recent customer satisfaction and traffic surveys showing Wotif.com was still the market leader by a large margin.